Need advice! Current business major

[Nihsnek]

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Hi guys,

I need some advice on how I should approach PT school. I'm a senior at a Texas college that will graduate this upcoming May with a B.B.A. in finance and economics. I have a very competitive GPA (3.93) and great experience with past finance related internships.

The problem now is that I want to become a PT. After being exposed to PT for my surgery, the profession has really attracted me to it. I have no prerequisites except statistics and calculus. I will graduate this May, so I will have to attend a community college to get my science courses.

Obviously, I would have to wait until Fall 2014 before I could start PT school, but I want to make sure I can apply in Fall 2013 and not miss any deadlines.

-Do PT schools "look down" on community college credits?

-Do some programs allow you to apply before you've completed the prerequisites (I can go to both summer school sessions, but I would still need another semester before I could finish all the requirements)? I can't wait until Fall 2014 to apply..I want to apply this upcoming September/October.

-How well respected is TWU and UTSW? I am from the DFW area and would prefer to be able to attend a local PT school.

-What else can I do to boost my application? I will be taking the GRE very soon.

Thank everybody for their advice and wisdom...I am trying to get a solid "game plan" on how to advance from my current situation. 😀

PS: Sorry for posting in both forums!

 

[mccomasg09]

.

 

[CollegeGirl3]

Hi guys,

I need some advice on how I should approach PT school. I'm a senior at a Texas college that will graduate this upcoming May with a B.B.A. in finance and economics. I have a very competitive GPA (3.93) and great experience with past finance related internships.

The problem now is that I want to become a PT. After being exposed to PT for my surgery, the profession has really attracted me to it. I have no prerequisites except statistics and calculus. I will graduate this May, so I will have to attend a community college to get my science courses.

Obviously, I would have to wait until Fall 2014 before I could start PT school, but I want to make sure I can apply in Fall 2013 and not miss any deadlines.

-Do PT schools "look down" on community college credits?

-Do some programs allow you to apply before you've completed the prerequisites (I can go to both summer school sessions, but I would still need another semester before I could finish all the requirements)? I can't wait until Fall 2014 to apply..I want to apply this upcoming September/October.

-How well respected is TWU and UTSW? I am from the DFW area and would prefer to be able to attend a local PT school.

-What else can I do to boost my application? I will be taking the GRE very soon.

Thank everybody for their advice and wisdom...I am trying to get a solid "game plan" on how to advance from my current situation. 😀

PS: Sorry for posting in both forums!

Like the person before me said, your gpa is pretty competitive but your pre-req gpa matters a bit more I would say. PT schools don't look down on community college credits, but if you're planning on applying this upcoming cycle, having only completed 2 pre-reqs isn't the best idea. You would still have to complete a&p 1 & 2, chem 1 & 2, physics 1 & 2, biology 1 & 2, psych and another psych class like abnormal or life development, a medical terminology course or certificate which is a total of around 38 credit hours (if I didn't do the math wrong). You would still have a semester left to complete the remaining courses if you did both summer sessions, and - don't quote me on this - but I think most PT schools don't want to see more than 3 outstanding courses when you apply. I'm not too sure on the numbers since it varies from school to school.

Another thing you would have to do to apply is start doing observation hours. The more you have in varied settings, the better. For TWU you will need 3 letters of recommendations with 2 of those coming from physical therapists you have observed/volunteered with. UTSW also requires 3 LOR although I'm not sure how many must be from PTs. Start looking at places you can volunteer at right now so you can start accumulating those hours.

Make sure to do well on the GRE as well. Since most TX schools don't participate with PTCAS, the numbers of the incoming classes aren't as easy to find. However, I have emailed the TWU coordinator and the stats for TWU's incoming class of 2013 were:
- last 60 hour GPA: 3.84
- math and science GPA: 3.76
- GRE 154V, 154Q, 4.1A
I can't say much about UTSW.

Make sure to do well on those pre-reqs! You might want to consider applying next cycle so that you can have all of your pre-reqs done and have good LORs from therapists you would have been able to build a relationship with over time.

Oh and as for the schools themselves, it doesn't matter where you go since the point is to get licensed and it's generally the same for all schools. If you have any more questions, ask! 🙂

 

[Lucky Duck]

It may be difficult to get all the prereqs you need to apply for next cycle, maybe not impossible (but in my opinion very very very difficult). I think it might be best to take Bio and Chem before taking physiology. Some programs have a more prereqs some have less. Many schools may not even have your fall term classes when they are making decisions. So they would be looking at one summer of science.

Taking Bio, Chem, and Physics (and the labs in chem and physics if they are seperate) this summer would probably be quite the load. Especially if you haven't take a lot of science classes recently. Normally someone might take this amount of work in a regular school year crammed into the summer. Even just Chem and Bio would be a lot, where I'm at that would be 24 credits in the quarter system. I don't know much about how credits work in the semester system or if you are familiar with quarter systems, but 12 credits is the minimum to be considered full time. Most people take 15-17 credits and would never consider taking more than 20. I don't know of anyone that would consider trying to take 20 credits of all science.

Check out the specific schools you are looking at to figure out what you need. I think it is more realistic to apply in the 2014-2015 cycle.

 

[19081307]

Hi Nihsnek! I was a business major in 2008 my undergrad and have been recently accepted into 2 PT programs and waitlisted for 1. The advice listed above I would say is spot on. Like you will need to do, I took post bacc classes to fulfill my prereqs. Since I've been working full time its taken me a bit longer to complete my classes and observation hours but slow and steady won the race in my case. I took my A&P, biology, and medical terminology at a 4 year college and have taken all other courses at a community college because they are more flexible with their course offerings. However please note I checked with the schools I was interested in applying to and confirmed that they would accept community college courses. Ultimately I focused on getting good grades (science GPA will be important esp if you're competing against a bunch of science majors) and diversifying my observation hours. I also made sure to build strong relationships with the PTs and administrators I encountered along the way.

My advice is to do your research on the schools you are interested in (on the school website and through the PTCAS system) so that you are fully aware of their requirements. Visiting open house's of the PT programs to get a feel for the program and get any questions answered was helpful in my case. Also if you haven't already taken the GRE start working on studying for that now so that you can have a strong, competitive score. If I can offer anymore help or advice please let me know. Sorry if I went on and on. Last thought I want to share: I have found that having a business major did not hurt my chances at PT school especially since I found relevant and meaningful ways that my work skills and school experience were transferable to PT 🙂 I've even been accepted into a school that offers a DPT/MBA track. With more and more PTs owning their own businesses a business background is a good thing to be able to rely on 🙂

 

[okramango]

I was accepted to TWU Dallas this cycle, to start this August, and it is a fantastic and very well known program. It is also quite competitive to get into, so I agree with what others have said: It's best not to rush through your prerequisites in one summer if you are not used to science classes with labs. You really need to get high grades in your science courses in order to be competitive there. They look at your last 60 credits GPA and your science GPA when evaluating your application. I did all of my prerequisites at a community college, over the course of a year, and TWU accepted that. It was a really busy and tough year, doing all those classes in addition to observation hours, studying for and taking the GRE, and working part time. I can't imagine trying to rush that even more in order to apply in only a few months. If you do apply later this year, make sure to at least take anatomy and physiology early, as most schools want to see your grade in those two classes. You'll need to accumulate a good chunk of observation hours, in at least three different settings. It seems that around 150-200 hrs is the norm for competitive applicants.

 

[josierita]

I agree with other posters about waiting another year to apply in order to finish your pre-reqs. Another thing to think about is that for many schools I applied to, their limit was 2 outstanding pre-reqs that were either in progress or had not been completed yet. So in that case you would definitely need to wait another year in order to get your application in early (something else I would recommend!)

 

[Damccookster]

All the advice I've read is exactly what I would have said. I wanted to add my schedule I used for my pre reqs so maybe it may help. I started thinking about PT school around this time of year as well.

2011 Summer Session 1: Chem I (4.5 credits) (this class met four days a week from 9-3. It ran from Mid May-End of June)
2011 Summer Session 2: Chem II (4.5 credits) (same schedule as above except from End of June-beginning of August)
2011 Fall: Statistics (3 credits), Intro Psychology (3 credits), Biology I (4 credits), Physics I (4 credits)
2012 Spring: Human Growth and Development (3 credits), Physics II (4 credits), Biology II (4 credits), A&P I (4 credits)
2012 Fall: A&P II (4 credits) ( I could have taken this in the summer but I wanted to take it with a professor I knew was only teaching I the fall.

So essentially I started the year before I applied and I only had A&P II in progress while I was applying. I don't think schools like applicants having more than 2 pre reqs pending while they are applying. Even with that schedule it was rough especially Spring 2012. Three sciences with labs is tough. I also did all of these as a CC and none of the 13 schools I applied to cared (schools in NY). When your major is unrelated like ours (mine were Communications and Sociology) you have to take at least 1 year to do all the pre reqs. If you have any more questions about scheduling let me know.

 

[hoppinalong]

Hi, I was in a very similar situation to you this time last year. I was a business major with a very high GPA and no prerequisites except some psychologies and statistics. I was able to take chem I, phyiscs I, and A&P I in the summer after I graduated with my bachelors. In the fall I took the part II of all of those classes. I only applied to school with the fewest number of prereqs. I was able to make a decent score on the gre, and get some good LOR's. It was tough doing a bunch of sciences on a shortened schedule, but I did it and I got into my top choice school. I will be starting PT school this fall.

 

[bnwj89]

Only thing I'd add is don't hesitate to contact the schools that you are looking to get in to. They are more than helpful and can answer all your questions specifically to their program

 

[somehowmadeit]

My situation was similar to yours. I decided to enter PT after a career in another, unrelated field, and only had my chem sequence and calculus from undergrad.

First of all, if you have a 3.93 GPA in a finance degree, you have the brain power to get in anywhere so long as your success translates into the PT prereqs.

Also, schools don't care if your courses are at a community college. Just so long as they're on a transcript somewhere, that's all they want to see.

My schedule the year I applied went something like this:

Fall: Anatomy/AbPsych/Physics1
Summer😛hysiology and an online exercise physiology course
Late summer: three weeks of studying and then the GRE
Fall: Physics 2/Stats/Microbio

That was a very intense year, but I did well and was accepted into my schools of choice.

It's been my experience in interviewing and speaking with faculty that putting together an academically rigorous schedule shows you can handle the intense, time-restricted learning environment of the first year. Most of all, schools want to accept students who can finish the program, and finish it well. If you can prove it to them in your pre reqs, you'll be golden.

I firmly believe also that having experience in another field is beneficial, again, so long as you knock the pre reqs out of the park.

Best of luck to you.

 

[NewTestament]

.
It's been my experience in interviewing and speaking with faculty that putting together an academically rigorous schedule shows you can handle the intense, time-restricted learning environment of the first year. Most of all, schools want to accept students who can finish the program, and finish it well. If you can prove it to them in your pre reqs, you'll be golden.

Best of luck to you.

Having at least a part-time job while taking your pre-reqs will look great. I don't recommend a full-time job, because you'll end up compromising your grades, and you won't get into school at all. Stay busy, and challenge yourself. Try to take at least eight credits at a time, if not 11 or 12 if you already have your bachelor's. Obviously, if you're a traditional student, this won't be a problem, because you're probably a full-time student anyway. What I'm trying to say is don't make you schedule so rigorous that you can't do well, but don't make it so easy that schools won't think that you can handle PT school.

Kevin

 

[Nihsnek]

I just wanted to thank everyone for their replies. I will be meeting with both schools (UT-SW and TWU) this coming week and hopefully we can work out a compromise. I would really like to be able to apply this Fall so I can start in Fall 2014. I am so excited about starting my journey to become a PT!

PS: I took the GRE and seemed to score about average. I got a 156V/156Q.